Dr. Sanjay Juneja helps children understand cancer with new book

Dr. Sanjay Juneja, a Baton Rouge-based oncologist and hematologist, has worked with cancer patients for nearly a decade. He has seen firsthand just how prevalent the disease is, and yet he noticed how little children are included in conversations about cancer. 

This lack of educational resources geared toward children inspired Juneja to write We Need to Talk About Cancer: An Important Book for Patients, Family and Friends, a children’s book that explains cancer in an age-appropriate way. 

“There’s not a good place for kids to be able to find information, even though they’re hearing about cancer, you know, everywhere, because it’s obviously so prevalent,” Juneja says.

Juneja was approached by Neon Squid, a subset of the British publishing company Macmillan Publishers, in early 2025 about writing a book like this, launching an almost year-long writing process. 

Juneja first wrote a rough draft of what he wanted to include on each page. That was sent to an illustrator who turned Juneja’s descriptions into images, and once that was done, Juneja went through each page and rewrote the text to fit around the illustrations. The final draft of We Need to Talk About Cancer was completed at the end of 2025, with the book hitting shelves this past May.

Juneja ultimately decided to write the book for children aged 10 to 14 because he wanted readers to need only a very basic understanding of cancer and biology to grasp such a complex issue. 

“I wanted the very minimal amount of understanding necessary to hopefully be able to help kids get information that I just fear they’re not able to ask,” Juneja says. “There isn’t a good place for children to even start the kind of journey or process of like, ‘What can I ask my mom or dad about their cancer? What shouldn’t I?’”

The book is essentially split in two, with the first half introducing readers to the science behind cancer and the second half exploring the emotional toll cancer takes and how patients and loved ones can learn to cope while living with the disease. 

The basics of cancer are paired with colorful illustrations: Types of cancer are skyscraper buildings, a team of medical experts is a soccer team and chemotherapy is a red-caped superhero fighting against cancer cells. 

Similarly, the book paints a picture of what life with cancer is like, giving children visual examples of how fear can manifest itself and different strategies to ease these negative feelings, including daily walks, Friday morning pancakes and putting pen to paper to express emotions. 

For Juneja, it was important to address both sides of cancer, as the disease impacts more than just one’s physical health. With so much ground to cover, however, he found that the most challenging part of writing was framing the information in easily-understandable terms while being careful not to oversimplify or downplay the topic. 

“How can I make sure that in trying to provide comfort with something scary and intimidating that I didn’t overcorrect on the comfort level and optimism,” says Juneja, “but at the same time empower them or give them the things to maybe help get through certain challenges?”

Part of his purpose for writing the book was also to combat some of the misinformation that tends to circulate heavy, confusing topics such as cancer. 

“I hope that it really illustrates why cancer is so challenging, and why it takes so much science and strategy to try and beat it,” he says. 

On the flip side, he also hopes that the book helps people realize that a cancer diagnosis is not the be-all and end-all for many patients, and that doctors and scientists have made a lot of gains in treating the disease.

Since his book’s publication, Juneja has received many messages from people he has met over the years, including former patients, their loved ones and even med school classmates, all of whom reached out to tell him about how the book impacted them. 

“It’s been deeply humbling,” he says. 

We Need To Talk About Cancer, which Juneja receives no royalties for, is available anywhere you can purchase books, including Amazon and Barnes & Noble. 

The book will also be featured at the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge on Oct. 31